tINEditorials
Editorials and Letters to the Editor are posted and archived on JN Online:
www.detroitjewishnews.com
Never Too Early
D
rafters of Detroit's newest blue-
print for Jewish education could
have justified whatever age
group they chose to emphasize.
That's because learning Jewishly is impor-
tant at any age.
But the Jewish Federation of Metropoli-
tan Detroit-sponsored blueprint gives prior-
ity to preschoolers, and we can't fault that
choice. There's certainly merit in instilling
Jewish identity during the formative years.
Jewishly speaking, preschoolers are at
risk. There just aren't that many outstand-
ing Jewish programs for this highly impres-
sionable age group.
Granted, 3-_to 5-year-olds are more apt
to want to play than learn. But introducing
them to Judaism, even in the context of
play, can help sustain a lifelong interest.
Eighty members strong, Federation's
Alliance for Jewish Education (FAJE) last
year was charged with developing a long-
range, innovative vision for Jewish educa-
tion, the bedrock of Detroit Jewry's plan
for responding to the stinging results of the
1998 Jewish Education Service of North
America critique. JESNA found a "fuzzi-
ness" in the Federation-sponsored Agency
for Jewish Education's overall planning for
programs and services. Only the special-
needs education program of the Agency
drew universally favorable ratings.
We could argue for emphasizing Jewish
education in the high school years, when
teenagers become more caught up in the
IN FOCUS
secular world, and the threat of full assimi-
lation escalates. Still, we see the value in
starting early, before secular influences take
over. If you hook youngsters on being Jew-
ish, you are more apt to hook their parents,
too. And "family" is still a pillar of Judaism.
To invigorate congregational preschools,
FAJE envisions better teacher training and
development, having family educators on
staff and assuring affordable tuition —
worthy goals all.
Time will tell if we can reach them.
But we need to start somewhere.
As Mimi Alperin, who chairs the Ameri-
can Jewish Committee's Contemporary
Jewish Life Commission, puts it: "We see
today that though Jewish education may be
high priority for many in our Jewish com-
munity, we still do not all agree on where
to start. Most importantly, we must begin
the process — encouraging a variety of pro-
grams that will enhance the collective Jew-
ish enterprise."
We have high regard for FAJE's volun-
teer members under the professional leader-
ship of Harlene Appelman. Now, we urge
them to rev it up a notch, make across-the-
board preschool excellence the unequivocal
standard and begin to identify possible new
funding sources.
We're at a crossroads, where ideas must
translate into impact. And we'll know with-
in a generation how deeply the Detroit
Jewish community's commitment to build-
ing better preschools has taken root. ❑
A Notable Trio
At the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's Millennium Cam-
paign for Detroit's Jewish Future recognition dinner on June 1, Bing-
ham Farms' David Hermelin gets a handshake from fellow philan-
thropist Max Fisher of Franklin with an approving smile from Rabbi
Michael Melchior of the moderate Orthodox Meimad Party. The rabbi
is minister of Israel society and world Jewish community in the office
of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
Building The Base
A
small exercise in communal democracy
could help local federations deal with the
increasingly vexing problem of how much
money they should spend on overseas
projects.
The issue came to the fore last year as many of
the leading federations complained that they were
effectively being forced to allocate money to overseas
efforts when they would have rather spent it on
high-priority local efforts, such as education.
This week, the new umbrella agency for U.S. fed-
erations, United Jewish Communities (UJC),
approved a modest rule change that lets the locals
designate up to 10 percent of their overseas funding
toward projects already approved by the American
Jewish Joint Distribution Committee or the Jewish
Agency for Israel. The projects include feeding
elderly Jews in the former Soviet Union, funding
Israeli emissaries who do Israel programming in
Related story: page 20
U.S. communities, and Partnership 2000, a project
linking U.S. federations with Israeli regions for peo-
ple-to-people exchanges and economic development.
The new rule is more cosmetic than substantial,
however, locals are on firm ground when they insist
they should have much more freedom of choice. UJC
has said it expects to broaden the choices next year.
Giving even more urgency to the issue was the
request last week by the Reform movement leadership
in an editorial in their newsletter. It asked that congre-
gants not increase overseas giving through the federa-
tion system. Additional monies, the editorial said,
should go only to programs that promote religious plu-
ralism — a goal not shared by most of the "approved"
programs. The editorial drew a testy protest from UJC
officials, who say they have raised $25 million for plu-
ralism projects in the last three years.
We think the situation offers local federation
leaders a special opportunity that could lead to
increased overseas spending as well as better ties
with local contributors.
Federations should simply arrange a series of pub-
lic meetings — heavily publicized well in advance —
at which they would explain to the community their
rationale for supporting overseas programs. Officials
from the Jewish Agency for Israel, the JDC and other
programs should leap at the chance to address a grass-
roots constituency about the needs. A new generation
of U.S. Jews can't be expected to share automatically
the commitment of their parents who bought the
bonds and filled the Jewish National Fund blue
boxes. They need to learn what the new realities are,
now that the survival and success of Israel itself is not
such an open question.
Further, public meetings would demonstrate a com-
mitment by local federation leaders to exactly the same
kind of participatory democracy in their communities
that they want to have at the national level.
It is a win-win scenario. For too long, overseas
spending has been something of a lemon. It would
be nice to see solid local leadership turn it into
lemonade.
❑
Jig
6/23
2000
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